Brewster Kahle
Founder of the Internet Archive and its Wayback Machine
- Age
- 66 yrs
- Birthday in 350 days
- Works listed
- 2
- Web archive, Search system
- Honours
- 2
- Most recent 2012
- Profile views
- 2
- 0 followers
Brewster Kahle is an American computer engineer and digital librarian who founded the Internet Archive in 1996, a non-profit that preserves websites, books, films and software. Its Wayback Machine lets anyone view past versions of web pages. He also created WAIS and co-founded Alexa Internet.
Biography
Background
Kahle studied computer science and engineering at MIT and worked at Thinking Machines, a maker of parallel supercomputers.
WAIS and Alexa
In 1989 he created WAIS, an early internet search system, and sold his company to AOL. In 1996 he co-founded Alexa Internet, which crawled the web; Amazon bought it in 1999.
Internet Archive
Also in 1996 he founded the Internet Archive in San Francisco with the aim of “universal access to all knowledge”. The Wayback Machine, opened to the public in 2001, holds hundreds of billions of web pages.
Books and lawsuits
The archive digitises books and lends them online. In 2023 a US court ruled against its lending of scanned copyrighted books during the pandemic, a case it lost on appeal in 2024.
Timeline
-
1960
Born in New York City, United States
-
1989
Creates WAIS
-
1995
WAIS Inc. sold to AOL
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1996
Founds the Internet Archive and Alexa
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1999
Amazon buys Alexa
-
2001
Wayback Machine opens
-
2012
Internet Hall of Fame
-
2024
Loses appeal in book-lending case
Notable works
-
2001
Wayback Machine Web archive
-
1989
WAIS Search system
Awards and honours
-
Paul Evan Peters Award
2004
-
Internet Hall of Fame
2012
Did you know?
-
1
The Internet Archive is housed in a former church in San Francisco.
-
2
It also preserves old video games playable in a browser.
-
3
He calls the archive a “Library of Alexandria” for the internet.
Connections
Frequently asked
Who is Brewster Kahle?
Brewster Kahle is an American computer engineer and digital librarian who founded the Internet Archive in 1996, a non-profit that preserves websites, books, films and software. Its Wayback Machine lets anyone view past versions of web pages. He also created WAIS and co-founded Alexa Internet.
How old is Brewster Kahle?
Brewster Kahle is 66 years old, born on 22 October 1960 in New York City, United States.
Where is Brewster Kahle from?
Brewster Kahle was born in New York City, United States.
What is Brewster Kahle known for?
Brewster Kahle is best known for Internet Archive (1996); Wayback Machine; WAIS; Alexa Internet.
What awards has Brewster Kahle received?
Notable honours include Paul Evan Peters Award (2004), Internet Hall of Fame (2012).
References
- Brewster Kahle — Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Brewster Kahle — IMDb. IMDb. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Brewster Kahle (Q92945) — structured data. Wikidata. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
Includes material from the Wikipedia article “Brewster Kahle”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. That text is available under the same licence. Learn more
External links
About this profile
- Researched by the TrackFame editorial team; reviewed by Sanjay Sokal under our editorial policy
- First published 4 November 2026
- Last updated
Cite this page
“Brewster Kahle.” TrackFame, last updated 5 November 2026. https://trackfame.com/person/brewster-kahle
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